Break down those walls!Joshua 6.1-21
Lately, one thought keeps coming back to me, over and over again: Christine, if you want God to do something big in your life, circle it … then circle it again, maybe up unto seven times. [yessir, just like Joshua]
The words of God have always been in my life; I do not know a time when I did not know God, or trust in the words he gave me in the Holy Scriptures. I wish I could tap God’s mind right now and ask him how old I was, where I sat, when I first learned about Joshua and Jericho. Huh, I remember singing the song, ‘Joshua fit the battle of Jericho … and the walls came tumblin’ down.’ So, in brief, if you didn’t take time to read the passage in Joshua Six, God promised the courageous leader of Israel, Joshua, that he would ‘deliver Jericho into his hands,’ but Joshua had a key role to play in order to see God’s promise realized. [Note to self: If I want to see God’s promises realized in my life, I too have a key role to play]
God gave Joshua clear, specific instructions about how to take the city - instructions which would never have been found in the “General’s Guide of Battle-Winning Strategies.” God commanded, “March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times …”1 In effect, God said to Joshua—‘you have a battle to win … I have already promised you victory; but in order to see victory, son, you’ve got to obey me—and you must circle and circle again.’
Joshua did not hear from God, stop and consider the lunacy of God’s strategy—that is, having his army walk around the walled city of Jericho again and again—and then go his own way, back to his General’s Guide … rethink the matter, come up with a more reasonable plan. No,
Joshua trusted God,
obeyed, and
as God promised, the walls fell. The good guys won! Rah, the fans go wild!
What’s your Jericho? What does God want to deliver into your hands if you will circle it in prayer, trust him for the victory, and then circle again tomorrow?
In what situation is God saying to you, ‘Give the battle in front of you to me,
circle it in prayer—come back to me again and again—obey what I tell you to do,
and I will do it. You do your part—pray, obey and trust—and I will make it happen’?
What’s your Jericho—your marriage? Your health? Your son who is far from God? What’s your Jericho--someone who is pressuring you to go a different direction than God’s way and will for you? Is it shame or bitterness? What is it?
Your Jericho …
Stop. Drop. Pray.
Draw a circle on paper,
capture your Jericho in words,
write them in the circle, and
commit to praying again and again
that God will give you the victory.
Like Joshua, you must do your part. Look for God to lead you, obey what he tells you to do, both directly and in the Word of God and keep circling until you see victory.
Here’s the song--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji-0CjCKHi8—sung by students from PS 22 from Staten Island. Please watch it, listen to these talented kids from the hood. I pray that the words of the song will replay themselves in your head and equip you with what God wants to do in your life.
Oh, and one more thing—the battle? If you didn’t read to the end of the story, Joshua won the battle and his men never had to fight … Isn’t that just like God? He is not just great, he is oh, so very good.
He wants to fight your battles for you, if you would just look to him,
if you would stop, drop, pray, trust him and obey—and keep circling2.
Join God and break down walls in your life!
Christine
PastorWoman.com
1 – Joshua 6.3-4
2 – Need more on the power of circling your dreams and battles in prayer?
The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson, Zondervan. Life changing. Nuff said.
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